A questionnaire based evaluation of teaching methods in Pharmacology among second MBBS students in Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Background: Pharmacology is one of the important subjects studied during second year MBBS. The general stigma among students regarding pharmacology is that it is a dry and boring subject. Hence lecturers need to reform their teaching methods in order to make pharmacology teaching interesting and a significant learning experience by the students.Methods: A questionnaire based evaluation of 146 second MBBS students about teaching methods in pharmacology was conducted at Shadan institute of medical sciences, Hyderabad. Questionnaire was prepared from previous studies and validated by experts. The questionnaire was given to the students to be solved in one hour.Results: The mean age of the students was 20 plus or minus 2 years. There were 73% females and 27% males. 85% of students felt that pharmacology is an interesting subject. 67.2% wanted more of group discussions. 50.4% did not want any student seminars. 53.9% felt there should be more of problem stimulated lectures in pharmacology. 92% were interested in computer assisted learning. 57.5% of students preferred learning from textbook and class lectures. 68.1% students preferred to study pharmacology for regular tests only, 92% students wanted Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ’s) to be discussed in class.Conclusions: There is a definite need for modification of undergraduate curriculum so as to make pharmacology learning more understandable by students. Novel methods of teaching like small group discussions, computer assisted learning, bed side teaching etc can be adopted to make pharmacology an interesting and useful subject among students